damned_institute | Night 41: M51-60 Hallway

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Night 41: M51-60 Hallway

Recluse had used his uneventful dinner as time to hammer out and sharpen a new blade for Scourge, and do maintenance on the rest of his own weapons, then changing into his black Arachnos officer's uniform, ready for the night. Then, it had simply been a matter of waiting, impatiently as always, for the doors to unlock.

At least that pompous fool didn't lecture them all that long-windedly tonight. He slipped out into the hallway as soon as his door was unlocked, red eyes glowing dimly in the pitch black corridor.

[to here]

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"And it's not just youma." Rokuta sighed, folding his arms across his chest as he glanced up toward the ceiling. He was liking this place less and less every minute. "The person I talked to said that some of the others trapped here can also be dangerous."

As if it needed more dangerous, now they had to deal with other people. Not terribly unusual in the outside world, but he'd think that their common peril would make them at least willing to cooperate in the interest of escaping.

"It says outside the walls is particularly dangerous, and I'm not surprised. There might be somewhere to find a weapon of some kind for you in here, but - I don't know." He hated to force her to protect him, to force her to fight at all, but that was kind of the unpleasant reality of the situation.

Now that was no surprise to Youko--at least some of the people here were probably genuinely insane, and if they were running around freely there was no doubt that they'd be trouble. Still, Youko was reasonably confident she could handle humans, if it came down to that, even unarmed. As long as Jyouyuu's silence didn't mean the hinman was entirely gone... that would be a problem.

Tapping a corner of the map with one forefinger, Youko said thoughtfully, "There's a shed with sports equipment here, it says. There might be useful items there." There seemed to be more places that might be useful on the second floor, but the sports field was the closest to their current location, and speed was probably of the essence--there had to be significant competition for resources here.

"Sports equipment? Huh." Enki sounded more than slightly dubious at that suggestion, though he did lean over to look at the indicated spot on the map himself. "You want to fight off youma with toys?" The only "sports equipment" he could think of off the top of his head was along the lines of balls to kick, nothing like the sword to which she'd be accustomed. But maybe she'd know; his recent visits to Japan hadn't exactly involved a lot of playing.

And still, it probably was the best course of action, at this point, when so much of the building was unknown to the two of them. "Those storage rooms up there, maybe try those too? Who knows what kind of stuff someone might want to store around here." He reached over toward the second-floor map, indicating the easternmost hallway. There were at least several rooms there to try, even if it was farther away.

"Gaij-- that is, Americans, really like baseball. It's a sport played with wooden or metal bats. I think golf clubs, which have heavy metal or wooden ends, would be too much to hope for, but I might be able to get a baseball bat." No, of course it wasn't ideal--a blunt object instead of a blade--but it would at least increase her reach and add some weight to her swings.

Youko nodded, though, as Enki pointed out the storage rooms she'd also seen. "Yes, and also some laboratory storage on the other side. I didn't particularly excel in chemistry, but there are some things even I would recognise, I think. But getting all the way upstairs without running into a youma is my worry, there."

Rokuta just shrugged and nodded - in the end it was pretty much her decision, after all. Unless he managed to get away from the blood smell that was weakening him, his shirei wouldn't be able to do much to protect him, so it would be up to her. Hopefully she could, though, without getting herself hurt.

"If you think that sounds like a good idea, sure, we can try it first. I'd like to see as much as possible tonight, so we can get more of an idea what's going on here." If people who'd been here for weeks didn't know that much it wasn't likely they'd just stumble on some secret way home, but...well, just about anything would be more than they knew now.

Youko nodded again, agreeing entirely with the idea of seeing as much as they could tonight. "Even if going over it is too dangerous for now, we might want to try getting to the top of the wall, just to look around and see what we can of the lay of the land."

And on the matter of visibility, Youko had an idea. She held the flashlight up where Enki could see it clearly and asked, "Do you think you can carry this, while we go? It's a light--I don't know if you ever used one while you were in Hourai more recently--and if you carry it, that will leave both my hands free." Gods forbid she needed to fight barehanded, but if it came to that it would be a lot easier if she didn't have to worry about the flashlight, too.

"Oh. Sure." Rokuta shrugged again and reached out to take the light agreeably enough. It wasn't as though he'd be any use whatsoever otherwise, especially if they did run into one of the youma in the building. He could definitely light the way while he...quickly ran away from danger.

Great. This was clearly going to be quite the expedition. But still, there was no choice: the two of them had to return. Going out and searching was the only thing they could do at this point. "Guess we should get started, huh?"

Youko decided against asking Enki to try to shine the light in the eyes of any youma she ended up fighting; even that much involvement in a living thing's possible death might be too much for the kirin's peaceful nature, and Youko didn't really want to get into an argument with Enki, especially not when they had no one but each other, here. "I wouldn't mind more time to study this guide, but the longer we put off heading out the more likely it is that anything I might be able to use would already be taken by someone else."

Reluctantly, Youko handed the journal back to Enki and headed back out the way she'd come. She was pretty sure she'd gotten the gist of the guide, and she'd memorised as much of the map as she thought they were likely to need tonight--everything else could probably wait until tomorrow, if they were still here. Youko had the sinking feeling that they would be.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/631733.html?thread=53408949#t53408949)]

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Night 41: M51-60 Hallway

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